BuildingGreen is pleased to announce the launch of the 2030 Challenge for Products Information Hub. Launched by Architecture 2030 in February 2011, the 2030 Challenge for Products is a call to action to reduce not only the operational energy of buildings but also the embodied energy of the products that go into them.
We grumbled when GBCI overhauled the LEED AP program, introducing specialities, fees, and difficult-to-navigate credential maintenance. Is this the silver lining?
Adapting to climate change will require making our buildings more resilient to storms and flooding.
A lot can change in two hours. At 8 a.m. Sunday, I walked the length of our half-mile driveway here in southern Vermont, checking the culverts and water bars, all fortified and cleared the day before. All good. The brook next to our driveway was raging, but staying within its banks. The Green River was doing the same across the town road.
Composting and waste-to-energy are winners in a new study of food disposal options.
Many professors use EBN feature articles as course material. We're always looking for ways to make their lives easier.
We are already adding blankets to our beds here in Vermont, and it's still dark when my husband and I get up for our early-morning run. Looks like time to wean the kids off their late-to-bed/late-to-rise schedule and remember the meaning of the phrase "school night."
Home unimprovement: during renovation, the removal from a building of misguided features or home "improvements" added during previous renovations.
36,597 square feet of Ritter XL solar collectors were installed on an exhibition hall in Wels, Austria, providing almost 7 million Btu/hr of supplemental hot water for district heating. Photo: Ritter Group
Most solar thermal systems installed in cold climates use antifreeze, but Ritter XL Solar is engineering its systems with water. Can a large-scale commercial system survive the cold?
Here are some tips on deciding what do to with old, under-performing windows
As I was hosing down the dirt driveway in front of my house last week to keep the dust down with some guests due to arrive, I got to thinking about Chicken Dinner Road.
What electricians have to say about LEDs and other technology for lighting the job.
It's easy to augment your existing windows to keep the heat in better, but some "window attachments" are better than others.
Try this little perceptual experiment now: look at yourself in a mirror (or your computer or phone camera). Then look at your left eye, and then your right eye, and then back and forth several times. What do you see?
If someone else is around, ask them to look at you, and look back and forth between your eyes.
There are good ways to modify windows to prevent too much solar gain in the summer.
A few weeks ago I told a story in this space that was third-hand from Gordon Hayward. Well, a lot changed in the telling, and Gordon got back to me with what really happened.
Three aunts of a young man from Dorchester, Mass., came up to celebrate his graduation from a Vermont boarding school. They asked Gordon how anyone here ever slept at night: it was so dark and quiet that none of them got a wink. They thought there were at least three bears outside.
Should you replace your old windows? Using attachments can get more life out of them, and improve performance.
Most of us approach poorly performing old windows with a step-by-step exploration from one less-than-optimal fix to the next. Improving existing window performance shouldn't be that way, and it doesn't have to with new online resources.
Why isn't construction rebounding more? What is wrong with borrowing to get out of the Great Recession?
